So, Yeah. Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter. I was still wondering if there was anyone reading this story in the first place.
And one other thing:
-Pointer39: In the Halo CEA terminals, Spark mentions that he is blocking the distress calls from the crashed ship, as protocol states that the location of any Halo ring cannot, according to protocol, be transmitted. It would be safe to assume that this would apply to fleets of unknown ships hovering above the Halo aswell. I mean, High charity didn't arrive or evidently know of Halo 04's location until AFTER it was destroyed, and Halo 05 was not under the monitor's control, so he couldn't block communications, So there may very well be a no-communication protocol in place, and we all know how protocol obsessed the monitors are.
Chapter 13: Containment
UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Above the Control Room of installation 06, 19th February 2553
"And so, I will continue to generate both a communications and slipspace barrier around this Halo, as per protocol. How you even arrived here is… beyond my comprehension. I will be monitoring your ship from now on. Please, do not attempt to land on the Halo, or I will add you to the local sentinels firing ledger and ship targeting. You intrigue me greatly." The monitor muttered, and signed off.
"Well…" Cortana muttered. "This isn't good."
"No..." John muttered. "Damn these monitors and their compliance with protocol."
"We'll need to get a Covenant ship in order to gain access to a long range Communication Array." Thel muttered. "And then, There's the range of that jammer."
Thel scratched his lower jaws.
"Any idea on that, Cortana?" He asked, leaned on the right armrest of his chair.
"No. I can't run an active scan without attracting the attention of the Covenant." Cortana replied.
Sarah growled. "We're stuck. Again."
Thel turned and looked across the bridge. "Anyone else got any ideas?" He sighed.
A low murmur filled the room. No one spoke up. Thel swore under his breath. Then Cortana spoke up.
"I may have an idea. It's… risky and very dangerous, but It may be able to convince the monitor to give us a pass, or at least help us get to a friendly system." Cortana said.
"What's your plan then, Cortana? It's not like we have any other options." Thel said, tilted his head in curiousity.
She appeared on the holotable and brought up several holograms. She presented a hologram of the Halo.
"When scanning the Halo, I noticed this slightly discoloured patch of the surface of the Halo, right…" She cut away most of the ring, displaying a small portion, which she grew to a larger size, and then applied colours to the initially blue hologram. "…here."
She was pointing a greyish-green blob located on the ring. It was small, but definitely noticeable.
"I believe that this may be a containment failure. A Flood outbreak." She explained, which drew a few shudders from the group and even a gasp.
Thel felt his stomach twist slightly at the thought of another Flood outbreak, and his mandibles stiffened. He glanced over at John, whose face was mostly still impassive, but slightly paler than usual.
"If we offer the monitor help in containment, then we may be able to convince him to turn a blind eye on protocol in return." Cortana concluded. "Any objections?"
John immediately spoke up. "How on Earth are we supposed to do that? That's a fully routed infection, and we barely survived getting in or out by ourselves. How are we going to destroy the infection without more firepower. The Spearhead's impressive, but if the monitor could barely contain this outbreak, what difference are we going to make?"
"We could do more good than harm." Cortana countered. "With the Covenant here, there's a huge possibility that one spore could get onto a ship, and that would be all that it would take in order for another infestation to take place. I know, from the Halo's files, the monitors know almost nothing about fighting the Flood directly, and only contain info on handling an outbreak and containing it. But, the halos contain environmental replicators that keep the balance of fauna and flora on the rings in check. The point that is infected is centered on one of these points. This would result in an "endless" infestation, as the Flood would keep regenerating biomass. The monitor doesn't know how to attack the Flood. We, on the other hand, have experience in penetrating Flood positions and causing damage. If we could disable the environmental replicator, than that would cut off the Flood's source of Biomass, thereby allowing the monitor's containment protocols to actually become effective."
"All due respect, Cortana, but it was luck that got us in and out of Flood situations before, not tactical knowledge and expertise." John replied.
"Then we'll just have to borrow some of your luck, then." Cortana smiled, before mentioning, "It's all we've got."
Thel gave a sigh of resignation and sat heavily in his chair. "Indeed it is, Cortana." He grumbled. "Indeed it is… Send the monitor our proposal."
I+-+-+I
Chieftain's Quarters, Unknown MRS Class stealth cruiser, 19th February 2553
Kursnow sat on what he called his meditation table and thought of his woes. He had many enemies, and they all conspired against him. Time, that sangheili and brute who had beaten… Escaped from him and defied him. He had a rule… No-one who escaped him could run from him forever, and so long as he lived, then he would always persue them. His tripe couldn't know his true reasons, his true vendetta… And neither could the Remnant know either. They were a means to an end, a way to complete his… his rules, his ethics.
Time was his enemy. Every second his crew took to finish the repairs, the further and more prepared they would become. He closed his eyes further. Thinking deep as a prophet had once taught him, He clenched his hands into fists.
Patience. Patience.
I+-+-+I
Containment Frontier, Halo Installation 06, 19th February 2553
The monitor had eventually agreed to the arrangement, him even offering to teleport a single CCS Class battlecruiser to an obscure location around the ring, allowing them to destroy the ship and take the ship's COM system. However, Cortana had found out that there was a COM station within the Flood containment area, which they could use to send a message to the UNSC. Cortana even had the message ready before the monitor teleported them to the frontier.
John, in his MJOLNIR armor and Thel in his Ranger-like armor, hit the ground as the Halo's teleporter dumped them nearby a mountain pass where several different sentinels were holding back the Flood. This time, John landed on his feet, unlike the last time he used a Halo's teleporter.
"Cortana?" He asked.
Cortana had decided to accompany them in this trip instead of Vala, purely because she had experience with the Flood, and the monitor was only allowing people who had experience dealing with the infection to be present in the offensive.
"I'm receiving a geo map from the monitor: Stand by." She replied.
Thel shook his head and drew his Carbine. He grunted and surveyed the area as well to get his bearings. John drew his assault rifle as well.
"I've got the topographic maps of several areas of the ring that are under infection. I'm going to encrypt a few copies of these to give to ONI when we get back, In case the monitor wants them back when we're done." Cortana muttered, and then she overlayyed a map onto his HUD. He assumed that Cortana did the same to Thel's HUD aswell.
"I'm receiving a message from the monitor." Cortana announced.
"What does he have to say?" John asked.
"Playing message." Cortana replied.
"Reclaimer, I have allocated (one hundred and twenty three) sentinels to your offensive. To you have any plans?" Barrier asked.
John mused over that for a second.]
"Any ideas, Cortana?" John asked.
"I would have about twenty enforcer sentinels follow us and provide fire support for us, and have the rest attack… Here." She highlighted an area on the map.
"That will be a distraction for the majority of the flood forces, and we'll go in using that distraction." Cortana replied.
Thel and John exchanged a glance. Thel nodded.
"Do it." John told Cortana.
"Aye. The sentinels are moving to position. Time to go." Cortana replied.
Immediately, in the distance, several sentinel beams were heard in the distance. A group of enforcers flew over a nearby hill and stopped in a hovering position nearby the two. John and Thel turned toward the open pass in the mountains, and began the trek into flood territory.
There was no traces of infection along the mountain slopes as they passed in frontier and began to move into Flood territory. John could hear booms and rattles from the explosions from the battle in the distance. John began to increase his pace. From what he remembered from the first few Halos and the Ark, the Flood would quickly overpower the sentinels.
Thel noticed this and increased his pace slightly to keep up with the Spartan.
"It's quiet." John muttered after several minutes of silence trudging through the snow.
"I know." Thel replied. "It is interesting that there are no major flood signs around here and yet this is considered inside their territory."
"Perhaps there's a boundary between their territory and the monitor's defences?" Cortana asked.
"There is no boundry, Construct." The monitor replied. "The flood should have a sizable presence nearby your location…"
John bit his lip and scanned the mountain ranges again. No Flood to be seen. John tightened his grip slightly on his assault rifle. The motion tracker also read no hostiles. After another minute's walking, however, the party stumbled across the mangled remains of a single standard sentinel.
"Well, At least we know that we are inside Flood territory." Thel muttered.
John checked the beam weapon to see if there was any charge left in it. None. John threw it back in the pile of debris with a sigh.
"Hold on…" Cortana suddenly muttered.
"What is it?" John asked.
"Something appeared on the edge of our radar. Something hostile, too."
John and Thel both raised their weapons.
"Direction?" Thel asked.
"It seems to be coming from behind us… Exactly from the way we came…" Cortana replied.
The two turned behind and examined their path. A patch of black could be seen across the horizon of the mountain range. John activated his helmet optics. It only zoomed in about 3 times. It didn't enhance the black patch enough to identify.
"It's probably the parasite." Thel snarled.
John nodded slightly.
"How fast are they coming, Cortana?" He asked.
"I can't say." Cortana said. "The helmet's optics and sensors can't give an accurate reading of their speed."
Suddenly, several hostile appeared on their motion trackers, coming from the mountains around them. It was the Flood. John and Thel turned to the face the huge hoards pouring from the two mountains.
"Ambush!" Cortana shouted.
Thel snorted slightly. "Really…" He muttered.
John opened fire on the group of infection forms swarming down from his left. Three shots hit home, blowing apart the group, leaving three combat forms. The combat forms were made up of what seemed to be simple farm-yard animals, Not really forms that were meant to fight. They seemed to simply be the only things available.
Behind John, Thel opened fire, blasting apart the infection forms coming from his side. John fired a couple of assault rifle rounds into the combat forms, destroying the infection froms residing inside them. John turned and glanced up at the enforcers floating above them. They remained impassive.
"Cortana, can you tell those sentinels to do something?" John asked.
"Sure thing."
The enforcers turned and suddenly opened fire on the rear Flood army, using several of what seemed like mini-rocket launchers.
More infection and combat forms burst from several holes in the mountains around them. John opened fire again, beginning to back up. Another cluster of small infection forms exploded.
"We need to get out of here." Thel suddenly snarled. "Check the 50 meter tracker range."
John extended the range, revealing that the huge army of Flood forms advanceing from behind them were almost upon them. He glanced to the side to confirm that. How had they gotten so close, even though under heavy fire from the enforcers.
"Damn it!" John swore. "Cortana, Get those enforcers to retreat with us."
"On it." Cortana replied.
John gestured to Thel to go. The sangheili nodded and broke into a run. As John turned back to the advancing Flood to take a couple of shots at them. He fired four times, then suddenly he heard several cracks from the Flood. A pair of plasma shots flew by the Spartan.
"How the hell… They have weapons!" John growled, taking a pair of shots at the general mass of Flood.
The Sangheili fired several shots, taking down a combat form that had jumped at John as he turned to sprint. Another series of green plasma bolts whizzed by him. He heard an explosion from above him, and a burning enforcer fell from the sky.
"Cortana, place a waypoint on the COM station or the replicator!" John shouted.
A waypoint appeared 1.62 km appeared. The two increased their pace to a fast sprint. A few enforcers followed, but the majority had been cut off by the sheer volume of Flood forms that had surrounded them. After a minute of sprinting, the mountains surrounding them fell away, only to reveal that the snowy valley ended at a huge plain that was lay a kilometer of so below the end of the valley.
John took in the Valley. The surface was covered in Flood biomass. In the distance, two large silhouettes could be seen. A large building could be seen in the distance. Another large object stuck up from the ground. Trails of smoke rose up from the object
"That looks like a covenant battlecruiser…" Thel panted.
"That… does actually explains why they have weapons." John muttered.
"Uh, Chief, Arbiter… Behind you…" Cortana whispered.
The Master Chief turned. The Flood had surrounded them. He glanced at Thel. He sighed and turned back to the cliff behind the pair. The Flood remained still, not advancing on the two. John quickly drew his assault rifle. The Flood forms did not advance.
I… I am… intrigued by your presence. A human. A sangheili.
The Master Chief was an experienced soldier, and had faced enemies that most humans would go insane facing, and yet he jerked at the sound he heard. A Gravemind. Thel took a step back from the Flood army.
But It matters not. I am young… Younger than even my predecessor But I will not make the mistakes of my brethren. I will use what I can to bring about the goal. All shall be… Consumed.
The flood infection forms swarmed forward in a huge mass. John fired, and several popcorn-like flood forms exploded. But that did not seem to faze the huge swarm. As John hacked another magazine into his Rifle and fired again. More explosions of infection forms. Thel was firing with a pair of plasma rifles.
"It's hopeless." He muttered over the COM.
"We have no way out." Cortana answered. "I can't get in contact with the monitor."
The Flood combat forms opened fire on the enforcers hovering above the two. John glanced up, and several enforcers rumbled and exploded, falling from the sky above them. He realized a second too late that an enforcer was about to land right on top of him. He twisted out of the way, but it slammed into the ground beside him, blowing his shields and throwing him off the cliff.
"Cortana!" He yelled.
He heard her reply something, and then he slammed into the ground and blacked out.
I+-+-+I
Argh. This chapter turned out way longer than I wanted it to be. I wanted to be further along the story at this point, but my time in writing was rather limited, and I wanted to have a chapter done by the end of this week. And, Well, I don't kinda like how this turned out. Ever plan something, feel it's good, and then feel like it turned out horribly after you write it? Pah… anyway, R&R